Blood, Sweat & Tea, page 109 by Tom Reynolds
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never ill... only those on the top floor).
Entering the flat, the general state of disrepair, mess and the 3-litre bottle of strong cider I tripped over tended to give the impression that it was owned by an alcoholic. We got into the living room to find a large man lying senseless on the floor, while his daughter was sat over him stroking his hand, trying to reassure him. A quick check over, some oxygen and a chat with his daughter revealed a history of alcoholism (surprise!) and the occasional alcoholic fit. He was a big man, so we packaged him up in our carry-chair and carried him down three flights of stairs. All the time his daughter was saying how strong the nice ambulance men were - which only goes to show that she wasn't paying attention to my reddening face and struggles for breath...
We got the patient into the back of the ambulance where he started to fit again, this time lasting about 2minutes. He also decided to bite his tongue and vomit, which meant that the back of the ambulance (and myself in some part) was covered in bloody, cider-smelling vomit. I think I've mentioned before how I can't smell alcohol on someone's breath, yet I can smell cider when it has been vomited all over my ambulance... and it turns my stomach. We packaged him up and 'blued' him into Newham, where he had another two fits (despite some rather strong sedation) and by the end of our shift he was still in Resus' having infusions of phenytoin and Pabrinex.
So, a busy night without the chance to see our station, with at least one mopping out of the ambulance... pretty standard really.
The vomit in the ambulance took place at the end of our shift, so we couldn't even get back to station to use the mop. Unfortunately, with the increased number of calls we have, getting back to station is becoming rarer than ever.
Security
Yes, I know I've written before about kicking down doors. However, in this post I offer people advice in making the beating down of their door as hard as possible. So plea